


Jarco Week 2018 Collection

by TelepathicTeaTime



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: F/M, Happy Jarco Week '18 everyone!, Jarco - Freeform, Just Jarco and more Jackie devlopment because that's what we need ok, Never Broke Up AU, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-08 07:37:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13453521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelepathicTeaTime/pseuds/TelepathicTeaTime
Summary: A promise sworn on a breezy pier. A postcard delivered next to a faded bouquet of flowers. An old movie ticket stashed away, a bus ride through the state- All shared between two west coast kids in love and trying to make things work, fate and destiny be damned.My collection of fics for Jarco Week 2018! The prompt list was really solid this time around and gave me lots of ideas for each of the days, I hope you enjoyyy





	1. The Right Words

**Author's Note:**

> Jarco Week, Day One: Never Broke Up
> 
> Sometimes just saying all the right words isn't enough. They're something you can't just recite out of mind, or blurt out in desperation. The right words are something you truly have to feel, and only when these words are spoken from the depths of your heart,and only then- do they become the right words at all.
> 
> This is something Marco learns with Jackie on their date at the pier.

“Look, today was awesome and it’s really sweet that you’re trying, but… If you’re forcing yourself to stay in Echo Creek just so I’ll be happy, then we’ll both be miserable. So… I figured now’s a good time to give you an out.”

_ An...out? _

Though Marco’s brain knew that he was still standing on the pier with his feet planted firmly on the ground, Jackie’s words made his heart and body feel as if he had been violently tossed from the highest loop of the roller coaster twisting up high along the boardwalk. Everything changing so quickly, so drastically, so painful- that it left his head spinning and stomach sick to its depths.

Hadn’t Jackie been wrapped up in his arms just mere moments ago, the sea behind them set ablaze in the reds and pinks of the setting sun? Hadn’t they just spent the entire day together, laughing until their cheeks ached and their stomachs hurt, having the most fun he’s had since coming back from Mewni? They had even saved a lobster from the cruel fate of a fancy restaurant together! 

So why was Jackie beginning to slowly back away from him, something quiet and sad in her eyes under the colorful glow of the ferris wheel? Why did she want to end not only the amazing  day they’d had, but the entirety of their relationship even, on such a bittersweet note? Why…

An ocean breeze stirred up between the two of them then, salty and brisk, and a velvety swish on Marco’s back suddenly turned into a thousand pound burden.

_ Why couldn’t he have just left the cape at home? _

Heart clenched tight in his chest, he watched Jackie’s eyes follow the cape as it momentarily billowed out in the breeze, and though there was a gentle smile on her face, it seemed only as resolute as sea foam, ready to break and disappear at a moment’s notice. When the cape finally settled onto his back again, the air completely still between the two of them (if there was any air around at all, though, why was it  _ so  _ hard for him to breathe right now?) Jackie’s eyes found Marco’s once more and it was in that shared gaze he saw more than just a girl trying her best to stay cool and understanding in what was a very difficult situation, a girl much more wise beyond her years than she let on. He saw a girl he cared about very much, very deeply hurt. And the one responsible for that grief was himself.

Marco’s fists balled up tight and angry at his sides, his nails digging white crescent moons into his sweat-drenched palms, and he had to resist the urge not to punch himself in the guts in self-inflicted punishment.

_ A perfect date, huh?  _ Is that really what he had promised her this morning? How could any date be perfect, let alone  _ okay,  _ if it was built on a lie? What were flowers and dinner even worth if they were covers for that lie? He had promised Jackie that he’d be present today after being gone for so long, that today, he’d finally choose her over everything else. Over Mewni. 

Over Star.

Jackie had held the proof he hadn’t been thinking of her in her own hands...

As if sensing that realization for herself, the faintest shimmer of tears in her long lashes, Jackie finally turned from him and began to reach for her skate helmet and board, ready to leave him behind.

It was then, with all the speed of an experienced martial artist, absolutely desperate at this point, Marco’s hands shot out and caught one of her’s, the grip he cradled it with saying more than enough without him having to blurt out,

“Jackie, wait!”

Her brows shot up high under her bangs in surprise at his outburst, and she did not return the squeeze, her fingers simply crooked over his sweaty, shaking palms where he had trapped it..but she also made no move to pull away, and to Marco it seemed as if she was purposely hesitating, willing him to say anything, a _ nything  _ at all to remedy the situation, or in the very least, explain himself.

And after taking a deep, shuddery breath, he did.

“J-jackie, please. You...you said you wanted to talk, so  _ please... _ let me talk too. Please?”

Like the little mermaid robbed of her voice, maybe even of her heart, Jackie nodded wordlessly for him to continue on,

“I know...I know that I screwed up big time by wearing this cape out with you today. I know that I screwed up when I made no effort to ask you about your summer because I was so caught up in talking about mine, one that I didn’t even spend with you.” He smiled then, for the first time since before Jackie had yanked the cape out from under his hoodie, but it was a watery smile of self-loathing, completely wavering at the edges with no mirth to be found in its curl at all. “Since we first started hanging out, it seems like I have done  _ nothing but  _ screw up when it comes to you, but ahhh, you already knew that, huh?”

The more words that came flooding out of his mouth, the more their weight seemed to press down on him from every angle, and he felt himself sinking lower and lower beneath their pressure until he was back on the bench they’d been sitting on previously, Jackie going down right alongside him, speechless and wide-eyed. 

He took a minute to gasp for breath, and his lungs seemed to fill with salt and cotton candy, suffocating him. The heavy silence between them was filled with the cheerful lilting melodies of carnival music, of the waves splashing against the pier, of other couples chatting and laughing easily with one another- and Marco's heart sunk even lower into his guts. How could they be having such a bleak conversation in such a cheerful, happy place? It was weird, but then again, his life had become nothing but weird for over the last year. He could handle weird, he could handle this. He could keep going, especially if meant easing the pain on Jackie’s face. He would go through  _ anything  _ for that. For her.  _ Except leave the cape at home... _ a tiny, cruel voice mocked him from somewhere in his brain, and he shook his his head furiously to silence it. This wasn’t the time to be angry at himself, that could come later. What mattered now was telling Jackie why he did what he did, and what she still meant to him.... 

Marco briefly wondered if the words would come easier if he spoke them out to the open sea, or down towards the tops of his shoes, but  _ no, no! Absolutely not!  _ Jackie at least deserved to be looked in the eye for this, he at least owed her that much. So screwing up all his courage, he held her gaze and pushed on, hoping she’d be able to tell that his feelings were genuine and not just a desperate ramble for forgiveness.

“So we both know that I do just about everything wrong, that I always find a way to mess up. But I don’t...I don’t want that to just be some dumb excuse I use over and over like this! I can’t just keep hurting you, Jackie, and playing it off as  _ ‘Oh, haha, whoops sorry! It’s because I’m such a screw up all the time! Typical Marco Diaz! Ha! Ha!” _

Jackie finally tried to interrupt him then, as he laughed cruel and loud at himself, loud enough for even a few passerby to cast bewildered glances his way. “Dude, no, you’re not-”

_ “Jackie.”  _ Marco squeezed her hand tightly, and leaning in close so that he could look deeply, openly into her eyes, said without flinching- “Yes, yes I am.”

“And I think the reason that is...like, why all I do is mess up over and over again is because....” With a sigh he pulled back from his intense staring and released her hands, so that his would be free to unclasp the cape from around his shoulders and pull it into his lap, so that he could stare down at the massive gem-encrusted ‘M’ and really think about what he’d done...what he was going to say, what he was going to do. Not just for himself, but for Jackie too.

And he must have been glaring silently at the cape for a little longer than he thought, because he was only pulled back into the present by Jackie’s hand hesitantly ghosting over his own, her voice uncertain as she ventured, “Uhh, because why…? Why, Marco?”

The cape reminded Marco-  _ Honesty.  _ A lack of honesty was why he was in this situation to begin with. Honesty, no matter where it led him and Jackie as a couple, was the only thing that could right the wrong. Even if it left him standing all alone.

“Because, Jackie Lynn...there’s still so much I  _ don’t know _ . I really feel like I don’t know anything, about anything, ever! I...I don’t know where I belong, sometimes. Am I really just a plain boring Earth kid anymore? Or am I meant to be this amazing heroic knight, but an alien, an outsider, in another dimension? And...and my own feelings confuse me and make me kinda nauseous, especially right now. Not just like one of my Marco Moments, but a full-blown Marco Eternity. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to figure myself out, if feeling like this will ever go away. Who...who am I right now if I don’t even know myself? Is this really all I have to look forward to, being-  _ being me? _ ” He gestured vaguely along his chest, before slamming his hands down into his lap in worried fists. “Is that even something to look forward to? Why does it feel like a prison sentence instead? A-and...and if I don’t know who I am, how can I know, truly  _ know  _ anyone else? I just...I even feel like I don’t really know, or understand the people who are the most special to me sometimes. Not my friends, or my parents or...or even you, Jackie.”

Jackie opened her mouth once, closed it, then after biting hard on her bottom lip in thought, finally stammered at a loss, “M-marco...Dude, that’s...I don’t know what to say. That’s...awful.” 

At this admittance, Jackie slowly pulled her hand away, and when Marco lifted his chin he saw in Jackie’s eyes the churning of tides, full of grief and pain. It hadn’t been enough for him to lie to her, to make her feel like he had chosen a life with Star on Mewni over one with her in Echo Creek, had it? No, of course he had to tell her he felt like he couldn’t understand her either!

If she wasn’t going to break up with him after this, he’d definitely be in the running for the Boyfriend of the Year Award!

Jackie took only a moment to swipe at her eyes with the heel of her hand before regaining her cool and composed composure once more, the lopsided smile on her face for no one’s benefit but his own, to ease his own guilt. She even tried to joke, her voice cracking ever so slightly at the edges, “Well, uhh, I guess that explains why you could never read my mind, huh dude?” And then she laughed.

Marco wondered how that moment must’ve looked to anyone else walking by on the boardwalk. The two of them, sitting so close together on the bench that their knees touched but an abyss opened up wide between them, Jackie laughing cheerfully at her own depressing joke, Marco staring at her with his full attention, his eyes dancing with the purple light of the ferris wheel and unshed tears.

To anyone that only saw them on the surface, did they look like a happy couple? Could they ever be…?

It was just another thing he didn't know. Like so many other things, like everything it seemed like, but... _ but! _

Marco stopped thinking about himself for a minute. He stopped thinking about how angry he was at himself for hiding the cape under his hoodie, why he felt such a desperate need to keep it on even back on Earth. He stopped worrying about getting dumped by his first girlfriend, the love of his childhood, and instead- focused on the girl in question herself. He pulled his focus away from his own screaming brain, his aching heart, and instead looked to Jackie.

_ She was laughing, even after finding herself in such a cruel situation, she could still laugh at herself. And when she had first discovered the cape, when she would have had every reason to strangle him with it and throw his body into the sea to help feed their new lobster friend, she instead kept calm and of all things...offered him an out, a chance to pursue another life, _another_ _girl_ , he’d be happier with, even if it left her standing alone, even if it meant admitting she had only ever been _second best_ in his eyes. _

But was she really? Is that truly how he felt about Jackie Lynn Thomas after all those years, after all they’d already been through in the three short months they’d shared together? How she was acting now, trying to be light-hearted even when she was heavy-hearted, encouraging him to feel his best all the while doing his best- Jackie had been on his side since the beginning. Never cruel, always cool- that was who she was. Marco had confessed at their disastrous sleepover that perhaps all those years he’d liked her, maybe he’d just been idolizing her, built her up on this pedestal in his mind that the real Jackie Lynn could never reach, but that he cared about her enough to want to get to know the  _ real  _ her...And here she was, right in front of him.

And though Marco felt he knew so little about himself, in that moment he knew one thing for absolute certain- 

He loved Jackie Lynn Thomas, and he wasn’t just going to let her go.

 

It was time for him to stop digging his grave a little deeper, and finally time to plant some seeds instead, pray that something good and maybe even beautiful could flourish out of what he had soiled.

Now was time to be honest with not just Jackie, but himself.

He tentatively placed his hand on her leg, palm up and opened to be held, and waited for Jackie to make the decision if she wanted to hold it or not. Her hand on the opposite side of him was currently clenched tight in the folds of her ocean wave dress, her knuckles sharp white peaks over the waves, and the one closest to him  had gone from wiping at her eyes to fiddling with her shell necklace, something Marco had only seen her do a couple of times. Once when she was getting her grade back on that major math test in Skullnick’s class before they had even started talking earlier in the year, and the other during the especially suspenseful bits in that horror movie they’d seen together their first time hanging out. A nervous habit of her’s he’d only just picked up on after all this time…

She regarded his open palm with a sad smile, and shook her head, her fingers continuing to spin and dance the orange shell on its string. Understanding completely, Marco nodded and pulled it back into his own lap, where he cupped his hands together as if to pray. It was now or never….

Marco had been expecting his words to come off a little shaky, a little uncertain at first, maybe even in the wrong order. But the closer he looked at Jackie,  _ really looked at her,  _ and listened to his heart about how he truly felt about her, he found himself speaking clearly, confidently, almost in a rush-

“But Jackie, that’s the thing. The more time I spend with you, the more I get to know you and see the amazing girl you are-always so patient and kind with me, how you are so full of life and love to have fun, but stay grounded enough to know when someone needs you or your help, which you’re always so quick to do, like with giving advice or your time or making someone laugh even when they feel like crying...the more I understand you, Jackie Lynn, the more I understand that you are someone I don’t wanna lose. Even right now, with you wanting to let me go so that I can find my own happiness, even if it hurts you- it only makes me want to stay by your side more. That you can be so brave, so mature, even when you have every right to hate me and wish nothing but the worst for me...Jackie, how could I ever walk away from someone as amazing as you?”

There were tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, burning like they’d been splashed with saltwater, but there was a genuine smile on his face as he gingerly offered her his hand once more, but this time it was more than just his open palm. He was offering her his most sincere apology for the pain he’d caused her, the promise of a future together, his entire heart. It was still up to her to take them, though. 

“I know I don’t deserve it, heck, I hardly deserve  _ you _ at all Jackie Lynn Thomas, but please...give me more time to be with you, to get to know you even more. I...I don’t want our time together to end here, not like this.”

His brown eyes searched her’s imploringly for her answer, for any sign that there was hope for them at all. “Please?”

Jackie was in even more slack-jawed awe right now than when she’d seen how much money he’d earned from his doll revenues earlier, and what’s more, her freckled cheeks were glowing the same bright pink as the ferris wheel lights behind them. Her fingers had stopped their fidgeting long ago, her necklace slipping soundlessly from their grasp to sway against her neck. Marco, feeling positively high off the rush of his confession just now,  felt bold enough to try and capture her hand again, to really show her how serious he was, but decided against it. That would be her decision to make, not his, to reconnect with him again. It was probably one she’d be coming to soon, regardless if what more he had to say, so he decided then it was time to wrap things up... _ literally. _

He made quick work folding his cape into a neat and tidy square, reclasping the gold clips around the back so that it would stay in shape. And then, with a deep sigh and one final farewell pat, passed it from his lap to Jackie’s. Letting go of it suddenly seemed infinitely easier than he had thought possible just a few days previous, and to his surprise...he felt immensely relieved. He sighed deeply, contently, his breath momentarily rustling his fringe. He brushed it away as he observed Jackie for her response, and found himself surprised by what he saw.

In all the years he’d kept his eyes on her, even from a distance, Marco had never seen Jackie so decidedly... _unchill_ as she was in that moment. She had both her hands splayed against her chest, high above the cape that sat like a gem-encrusted cherry atop the pile of words that had tumbled from his mouth and into her lap, heavy with emotion. Her eyes, usually half-lidded with the easiness of her mellow attitude, were popped wide as saucers as they bounced from the cape to his face, blinking very slowly. She also seemed to have momentarily forgotten how coherent speech worked, her lips parting as if to speak, only to close again without a word. This went on for at least two minutes, before finally, Jackie closed her eyes and took a very deep breath, her entire chest rising up and up, then sinking deep with the motion. Before she reopened her eyes, she brushed her sandy hair, teal streak and all, far back behind her studded and pierced ears, as if she was preparing herself to say something very honest, and incredibly important.

 “M-marco...dude. Duuuuude! Oh...oh my god, Marco? You...really just said all of that, huh? Wow...Just.  _ Dude!” _ ” 

She finally stuttered at him, but there was gleam in her eyes and a shaky smile on her lips, one Marco tried to return as warmly as he could. At the sight of his earnest expression, the sincerity gleaming in his eyes, she laughed, and there was nothing cruel in it, or cold. She just seemed positively overwhelmed.

Watching her hide her face in her hands as she laughed, Marco thought to himself with an immense sigh of relief,  _ Good to know I’m not the only one... _

He found himself chuckling right alongside her, well aware he had given her quite a helping of his deepest feelings, but found that even laughing it off just that little bit helped him feel a little less like the world was ending,that maybe they’d come out of this okay. “Yeah,” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, I did say all of that. But I meant every word of it, I really did. So, what do you...what do you think, Jackie?”

“Marco, I think that…” And as she she trailed off, her eyes trailed down to the cape now in her lap, and she seemed reminded of why they were even having this conversation to begin with. It was like a dark tidal wave crashing over their heads and sinking them deeper into a stormy sea, and Marco wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep afloat.

The mood once again heavy around them, she traced her finger along the sparkling peaks and valleys that made up the ‘M’ as she murmured, 

“I mean...just a little ago, when you were talking about how you don’t know or understand the people closest to you, you didn’t mention…You didn’t say anything about...”

Marco winced as if struck, and looked away in shame. The brightest lights really did cast the darkest shadows, didn’t they?

Jackie bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything more. She didn’t want to say it, would not say it, for the accusation her words would carry, the pain it might further inflict on them both. But Marco, deciding that Jackie had shouldered enough pain on her own that day, said it for her, the most difficult admittance of all that day.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Jackie. Star is someone very important to me...she might even be one of the  _ most  _ important. And she is in my heart. I care about her...so, so much. And she’s someone I feel like I do understand very well… Like she’s one of the few exceptions to those feelings. That’s why I didn’t say her name, then.” He drummed his fingers against his chest, unable to keep pace with the frantic beat throwing itself against his ribcage. He wondered how Jackie would react to this, being told that another girl, one he lived with for over a year, one he just spent the whole summer apart from her with, the one who had openly admitted to having a crush on him, was in his heart, that she was the exception to his sense of alienation. There was no way even someone as laid back as Jackie Lynn Thomas would be chill about that…

But surprisingly, this admittance seemed to calm Jackie more than upset her, and Marco watched as she exhaled deeply through her nose and sank back fully against the bench, her eyes gazing at where the sun was finally about to dip below the horizon. The sky had bled out all of its oranges, all of its pinks and reds, and had given way to bruised violets and inky blues...the day was over. The smile on her face now was not forced at all, just kind of small, and what more, relieved. 

“I know that, dude. I always have. It’s always been Star.”

There was nothing angry or jealous in Jackie’s voice as she said it, and with their proximity he even felt the sudden rise and dip of her shoulders as she shrugged. This seemed to be something she had made peace with awhile ago, maybe while he had been away on Mewni, and she seemed to accept it  hundred percent as the truth.

He gazed at her quietly for a  few moments, waiting for her to suddenly turn and sucker punch him (she did reveal to him today that she had a killer throwing arm!), but she only continued to gaze out at the darkening water. A part of him wanted to turn his body forwards too, to let this go for just a single minute so that he could look out at the horizon with her, but then they’d be back exactly where they had started when they first got there, when everything had still been okay... _ but not really. _

Marco didn’t want to go backwards to that false peace, and this present was too painful to stay in. What he truly wanted was to move keep moving forwards towards something truly happy, and more than that, he wanted to do so with Jackie at his side.

He considered picking over each and every one of his words very carefully, until they were perfect, until they would fix everything like a well recited magic spell would on Mewni, but Marco fully embraced the reality that right now, he was on Earth. There was no easy fix, there was no magic. There was only trying, and trying again, and trying  _ again.  _  He was on Earth with Jackie right beside him, the beautiful girl who had taught him what what truly mattered when you messed up, no matter how many times you did so, was that you just kept getting back up and trying again. If it was for her sake, if it was for  _ their _ sake, for this beautiful and new thing between them to work, he would never stop getting back up. And out of all the many, many things he did not know, of this Marco had never been more certain of anything in his fourteen years.

“Star has done a lot of things for me, Jackie, a lot of important things. One of the most important, I think, is that she helped me realize that I could be brave...that I was someone worthwhile. And by teaching me these things, Star gave me the greatest gift of all, which was the courage to finally talk to you and have you in my life, like  _ really  _ in my life. I embraced all the craziness, and the weird and the wild that came with having Star as my best friend because I hoped with all my heart that it would make me into someone worthy of your time. And I’m not gonna lie, Jackie- sometimes it was really hard. Scary, even. But Star always had my back, and I always had her’s to get through all those things together. Everything I’ve been through with Star has changed me, Jackie, and it has changed me into the person I always wished I could be for you. And now that I do know you better, now that you’re such an important part of my life, I’m actually  _ proud _ of myself for once in my life for pushing through all those challenges, because you were worth all of it, even the worst of things. Because if that is what I had to go through just to be with you, right here, right now, I would do it all over again. You’re so worth it, Jackie Lynn, I want to keep pushing myself to always be better...so maybe, if I just keep getting better and better, you’ll...you’ll think I’m worth it, too.”

Marco tipped his head back over the back of the bench, and stared deeply up into the sky. A few of the brightest, strongest stars were already beginning to shine up in the sky, and he thought of Star herself. He thought about what she might have been up to on Mewni, who she was with. He hoped that she had as fun of a day as he had shared with Jackie, at least for most of it. He hoped that Star understood just because the love he had for her wasn’t romantic, that didn’t make it any less special, didn’t make her any less special to him. He hoped that if she didn’t, she’d forgive him for it some day. But in his heart of hearts, Marco already knew that she would. So it was easy for him to smile as he turned his face away from the stars, away from Mewni, to tell Jackie,

“In all the ways Star helps me grow, and feel better about myself, I want to take those positive changes and use them to be better for you...for... _ us,  _ y’know? You said that it’s always been Star, and that’s what I made you believe, right? I’m sorry, Jackie. I am  _ so so so sorry  _ for making you think that for even a single second, that you were only ever second best. You’re not, you’re  _ absolutely not- _ and since the first time I saw you, I promise...the only one for me has been you, Jackie Lynn Thomas.”

"Marco…” Jackie leaned toward him a little bit as she breathed his name with face aglow and eyes shining, her hand clutching at her chest where Marco wondered if her heart was still all in one piece, if it was thrumming as hard as his was right now. He made a mental vow that if this worked out, he would  _ never ever  _ do such a cruel thing to such a kind heart ever again.

“Jackie, I do care about Star. And yeah, I do love her….In a way. But that way is not the same way that I love you. She’s someone I want to have in my life, forever, but you…”

He sat up straight as he could and gently took both of her hands into his own, cradling them like they were delicate as glass, as precious as gemstones, even with their crosshatch of scrapes and callouses from all the skateboarding she did, even with the sweat pooled in her palms. He squeezed them gently, traced his thumbs in careful circles over the tops of her hands. 

Marco really did love her, so much. It was time to tell her so.

“There is still so much I don’t know. I don’t know if you’ll forgive me, and if you do, I don’t know where we’ll end up together in the future. I don’t know what kind of person I’ll be then, if I’ll be good for you. I don’t even know if I’ll end up staying on Earth all the time, or what dimension is my real home. But I  _ want _ to learn the answer to all of those things, one step, one day at a time and if you’d let me...I’d really like to learn them with you...Jackie Lynn Thomas, I love you. You are my life.”

Jackie’s mouth fell open in a little ‘o’ of wordless shock, but Marco could feel the trembling in her hands, how they started at the very tips of her fingers and worked their way down to the curves of her wrist. The red, red blush that had been progressively blooming  in her face had also crept its way up to the very tips of her ears, and slinked partially down her neck as well, and to anyone walking by they probably assumed the poor girl had simply forgotten her sunscreen that day.  

To be thrown so off-balance like this, it must have felt very overwhelming and strange to someone usually so steady on a skateboard.

It was then that Marco realized he had given Jackie a lot to think about, a lot to handle, and maybe he realized with sudden panic,  _ too much to handle,  _ as Jackie’s blushing face suddenly screwed up with a gasp and fat tears began to roll their way down her face, drowning her freckles in their wake. 

He...he had made her cry! The total and complete  _ opposite  _ of what he had wanted to do! Horror and shame stomped their awful way into his heart and brain, and he realized his own tears, the very ones he'd been fighting off for so long, had also begun to spill their way down his face.

“Oh my gosh, Jackie, are you okay?! I’m sorry, ohhhh oh my gosh, I am so so sorry Jackie! I said too much! I went too far! Don’t cry, please don’t-”

_ Wham! _

“O-owww! Ow...ouch. Okay. Ouch. I totally deserved that one.”

So she ended up slugging him after all! Luckily it ended up being just one solid bop on his shoulder instead of the jaw-breaking punch he’d been expecting (and honestly, deserving of), but it was one she dished out with a bright and bubbling laugh. “M-marco, hahaha, you dummy!” She hiccuped cheerfully, giving the same shoulder a soothing pat just as easily as she had bruised it. She also reached up and delicately wiped at his tears, just as she had wiped the smudged ink from his cheek on their very first date, and when the trails were finally dry, she flipped his hands under her’s, and dragged him to his feet.

She gave his hands a firm squeeze of reassurance, and smiled at him, without pain, or forced maturity, despite the parallel trails of tears leading down her cheeks. She smiled at him with something that slammed into his heart with all the force of a sledgehammer, but rather than break him into pieces, only made him feel stronger, maybe even invincible. She smiled at him with unwavering support, and complete understanding.  _ She smiled at him with love. _

“Jeeeez, Marco Diaz, you always know just what to say when it really counts, don’t you?” She declared proudly, before releasing his hands to scoop up the cape that had tumbled to her feet. She brushed it off as clean as she could, almost affectionately. 

She didn’t hate the cape, or what it meant to him, or where it had come from. She didn’t hate him. “And yeah, dude, it is more than okay that you don’t have all the answers you’re looking for. No one does, like ever. What really matters, Marco,” As she spoke, she unfurled the cape from its tidy fold, and Marco could only watch in disbelief and wonder as she wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, and as she did so, reattached the cape back over his shoulders. “Is that you want to find them at all.”

She tugged the cape this way and that until it once again billowed out majestically behind him, and then when she was finally satisfied, moved her hands from the bejeweled fabric to cup both sides of his face. With the cape back on once more, Marco found there was also an unfamiliar weight against his chest now, and he wondered if Jackie had messed with the buckles somehow. When he looked down to inspect them closer he instead found Jackie’s orange shell looped through the clasps. He opened his mouth to protest immediately (there was no way he could take it, it was part of her special necklace, she’d had it for years!) but  Jackie, her nose crinkling with an especially pleased smile, shushed him by simply brushing her thumb over his lip, and the words died in his throat. It dawned on him then that maybe, maybe he had already said all the right things. Maybe now was the time to  _ do  _ all the right things.

Wordlessly, Marco reached up and gently took hold of her arms. Without having to say a thing, their eyes never once leaving the other, they tipped their foreheads together so that the tips of their noses just barely brushed. It kinda tickled, and it made Marco feel like his heart was gonna melt into a big gooey puddle of happy slime.

They held each other like that for awhile, simply drinking each other in, marveling at the other, what they had almost walked away from that day.  Fate had never seemed to loom so close, and they huddled closer together under its presence, away from its fingers that only seemed to want to stretch and pull them apart. 

_ Not today. Not ever. _

 

It was Jackie who finally broke the spell of silence. “Marco,” she breathed, “Read my mind.”

Marco chuckled, albeit a little nervously. Third time's the charm, right?

“Let’s see…you love me too?”

When she kissed him then, he could feel her smile on his lips, and if not for Jackie’s arms around him, he would have floated away right then and there.

“Hey, you got it first try! Way to go, dude.” She cheered, giggling in his arms. But then she quirked a mischievous brow at him, not finished yet with her game. “ Aaaand what else…?”

He nodded with confidence, and closed his hand over the gift she’d given him. It felt like holding the world, and all of its treasures, in the palm of his hand. “And you want me to keep your necklace and you’re not taking it back no matter what I say or do?”

Impressed, Jackie let out a low whistle. “Right again, Diaz! You’re on a roll now, but-” she pecked the tip of his nose in challenge. “Can you go three for three?” She waggled her eyebrows at him, egging him on.

Marco pulled away a little bit to answer this one, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. He felt pretty certain about his answer for this one too, but if he was wrong… 

They wouldn’t just be back to square one, they’d be back to square nothing. He really couldn’t mess this one up...

Jackie met his gaze, and seeing the worry there, nodded him on in encouragement. He took a deep breath and give it his best shot.

“And...and you still don’t want me to stay in Echo Creek if I don’t want to. You want me to go out...back...to Mewni...to find some of the answers I’m looking for?”

Jackie smiled brightly at him, flashed a supportive thumbs up. “Yeah, dude, right again! Your prize is…” but then the joke died on her tongue, suffocated by the nerves she suddenly seemed to have about whatever she was about to say. “Marco, I…” And then it was Jackie’s turn to take a deep breath to compose herself, as if she was finding it in herself to stay as cool as she always was. “I don’t wanna be your anchor, dude. I mean, at least not in a dragging you down, or holding you back kinda way! Those kinds of relationships...they’re such bummers, y’know? But Marco, if you really want this to work so badly, and you know in your heart, like your whole heart that you’re choosing me, and you’ll come and visit me and still talk to me once in awhile, or if it’s cool with you more than that-well, dude, what I’m trying to say is, I’m cool for giving long distance a shot if you are! And dude, what I’m really trying to say by that is...What I-I mean is,” 

Seeing Jackie so flustered for the first time like this, he had never loved her more.

She must have decided then that actions would do better work than words, and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, and she confessed, “I love you too, Marco…!”

He had wanted to surprise her with a kiss,  _ a real kiss,  _  by turning his cheek and catching her lips, but Jackie had always been so clever, so quick on the draw that she beat him to it, their lips meeting together almost desperately. It was the kind of kiss only two teenagers deeply in love for the first time could have, loaded with the kind of crazy feelings that could make your head spin and your heart do flips. It was like their first kiss all over again, but this time, there was no angry red moon to scare him, to fill him with doubt.

He had no more doubts.

In that moment, having Jackie in his arms and being held in her arms, Marco didn’t feel like anything needed to change at all. He was right where he wanted to be.

_ Why do goodbyes have to be so hard….?  _ Marco wondered as he re-adjusted the bag on his shoulder so it’d stopped bunching up his cape. He had been working slow work down the line of people who were here to send him off, and he was just about done. He had already shook Principal Well’s cold and clammy hand, slipped the lucky adventure dice from Ferguson and Alfonso into his pack, and returned his wallet back to its rightful place in his back pocket after getting it back from Janna, and the tear-stained belt from Sensei was folded in a neat ribbon in his pocket, where he would add it to his gi once he had a moment. His mom and dad had crushed him into more tearful goodbye hugs than he could count (or his spine could stand much longer…)  since waking up this morning, but the goodbye he was about to face now, the final one? He wasn’t sure he was ready for it…

“You’re ready for this dude, you totally got this!”

Just as she had done the other night back at the boardwalk, his girlfriend Jackie Lynn gently cupped his face in her hands...only instead of giving him the kiss he’d been expecting (and hoping for) she gave his skull a fairly violent shake. “Get those ugly ideas outta your heeeeeead, Marco! I can hear them from here! Good vibes only, dude!”

She did end up giving him a pretty awesome kiss once his eyes had stopped rolling, much to his parents’ delight and Janna’s disgust (He heard her retching even over the cheers of his buddies and the squeals of his family), but they all seemed to fade away in the quiet moment he shared with Jackie after, the two of them simply holding on to each other for that last little bit of time they had together.

“As soon as I’m settled in, I’ll bring you a mirror of your own so we can talk to each other, okay?” He promised, brushing back the teal streak of Jackie’s hair that had curled itself close to her eye. She caught his hand with the motion, gave it a grateful peck.

Jackie winked playfully. “Thanks, Marco. I don’t think my phone plan covers interdimensional calls or texts. That really helps a lot.”

“And once I’m done with my knight training, maybe you can come visit me on Mewni! I can show you all my cool, knightly moves! I might even know how to use a sword by then!”

“Totally dude, you’re gonna look so good in full suit of armor! Let me give you a few more skating lessons and maybe your trusty mount could be a totally awesome board, huh? The enemy won’t even know what hit ‘em!”

 

They laughed together then, before the mood took a slight dip at Jackie’s next question. “But uhhh, are you sure Star will...mind that? Me visiting?”

Marco brushed her fluffy bangs aside so that he could plant a firm kiss on her forehead, stamp out any of the doubt that might have begun to cloud her thoughts. 

For all the Marco Moments she’d helped him through, he’d definitely support her through her Jackie Moments, no matter how rarely they happened.

“Don’t worry, Jackie. I’ll talk to her... _ really talk to her.  _ I…”he pulled her closer so that only Jackie would hear his murmurs, “I meant what I said about her, and about you. There’s only you, Jackie. Only you. I promise.”

There was a sparkle in Jackie’s eyes then, maybe they were bright with gratitude, maybe it had been a sheen of tears, but she promised him back with a sunny smile that could part even the darkest of storm clouds, “Only you, Marco.”

It had become their own special way of telling the other that  _ Hey, I love you!  _ Without being so sappy about it. Though, if Janna’s scowl and green cheeks and the Diaz’s overjoyed tears had anything to say about it, it might have still been pretty darn sappy.

Suddenly painfully aware that everyone was watching them, the pair slowly retracted their arms back to themselves, blushing deeply.

“Uhhh, haha, anyways! Off I go!”

“Y-yeah! Get your show on the road, dude!” 

Marco coughed, retrieving his dimensional scissors from his hoodie pocket and opening a portal that’d take him back to Mewni, to his best friend. Maybe  even to his destiny. As for his heart and soul, though…

Clutching the shell she gave him close to his chest, he cast one more look to Jackie, the portal casting strange lights and colors over her face, and his heart seized. Could he really do this, could he really leave her like this? Would their feelings still reach other even dimensions apart? He didn’t know, he just didn’t know…

His nerves must have been as obvious as the mole on his face, because playfully teasing him,  Jackie gave him one of the old nods they used to exchange, and a thumbs up. “You got this, dude,  you know you do!” She reassured him once more, and he used all the positivity in her words to propel himself to take that first step into the portal, one foot already on Mewni, caught between worlds. Marco looked back over his shoulder one more time, at all the people who cared about him, who believed in him. He shared a meaningful look with everyone there, but his eyes stayed locked with Jackie’s the longest. She didn’t look scared, she didn’t look like she was losing him- She looked like she truly believed in him, and he chose to share that belief with her as well. 

As he took his second and final step into the portal, just before the it blinked shut behind him, he heard Jackie cheer, her voice clear above the din of all the other farewells and shouts,

“You’re gonna be amazing out there, Marco Diaz!”


	2. Date Night Drabbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why write about a single date night when you can write about a few? Nothing but happy Jarco fluff here, folks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few months back on Tumblr I made this sprawling list of some of my favorite Jarco headcanons, most of them involving what I think they'd like to do for fun together on dates and stuff. These were so much fun to write, I hope you like them too!

**Mosh Pit**

Marco knew how to take a hit. Years of karate had instilled in him the ability to redirect all the negative energy of a strike and redirect it somewhere else, keep it from ever blossoming into full-blown pain, and keep himself upright of his feet. Fighting monsters had only defined that further, a hooked claw or heavy hoof or curved horn teaching him much more about pain tolerance than any bare fist or foot in the dojo ever could, and he took each blow as a learning lesson, to prepare him for even greater pain should it ever find him.

Tonight, that pain had finally found him, and in a mosh pit of all places. Bodies swarmed around him in a furious flow, reeking of sweat, seething with the same violent energy as the loud (much too loud) music that pulsed overhead, boomed like death’s call from the amps before him. Marco braced his body tight against the current of leather jackets and thick boots stomping not just around him but  _ on  _ him, keeping his grip white-knuckle tight onto the flimsy fence keeping him just feet from the stage and the band belting out their angry words with their angry instruments atop of it.

Sharp elbows dug their way into the space between his ribs, shoulders slammed into his back with enough force to knock the wind out of him and leave him wheezing, and at some point, someone even yanked hard on the hood of his sweatshirt, effectively choking him, but Marco did not stumble, he did not waver. He couldn’t afford to, especially not now, not when-

“Whooo, this is so cool, dude!” Jackie cheered from where he kept her boxed in between his arms and chest, allowing her a free spot to simply enjoy the show without the threat of being swallowed up the torrent of violence swirling right behind them. She looked over her shoulder at him, flushed with excitement and joy, and kissed him full on the mouth, smiling into the kiss. “Are you having fun, Marco?”She shouted over the music, the roar of the crowd.

A fist connected squarely in the back of his head, a fist that Marco could easily tell was wearing a ring on each finger. He returned his girlfriend’s smile, earnestly.

“I am! This is fun!” He shouted back, kissing the back of her head just as someone stomped down hard on his foot. He didn’t flinch.

With Jackie in his arms, things just didn’t seem to hurt.

 

**First To Find**

It had taken Marco and Jackie awhile to find a horror movie that met their criteria. 

“It can’t be too gory!” Marco insisted at once as Jackie scrolled through Netflix to find a movie they could both agree on, wrapping his arms tight around his stomach. “Makes my guts do the tango, bleh.”

“Totally with you there, dude.” Jackie agreed, scrunching her nose up in mutual distaste. “The kinda stuff is naaasty. Hmmm….oh, and nothing about killer sharks,because that stuff is just lame, dude! They’re not monsters!”

“You’re right, you’re right! I’d eat a stranger too if they were randomly swimming in my house!”

“Hahahaha, same here, Marco! ….Wait, what?”

The movie they finally settled on was one from the sixties, and its age showed immediately.

“Hahaha! Marco! Marco, look!” Jackie excitedly gripped Marco’s elbow and flailed her own arm at the screen as soon as the female lead appeared, her hair swirled high above and around her head in a beehive that defied all laws of physics. She waggled her eyebrows at him playfully, before asking in as serious a tone she could muster, “Can you  _ bee-lieve  _ that’s her real hair, dude?”

Groaning despite the goofy smile lighting up his entire face, Marco tried half-heartedly to shake Jackie off his arm. “Ooohhh man, Jackie,  _ no!  _ That’s- ahaha, that’s so terrible...Let me gooooo,” he begged as he freely allowed her to snuggle even closer against his chest. 

Once she had settled in close, Jackie tipped her lips up to his ear and whispered, “I’m gonna style my hair like that from now, dude, what do you think?”

Without missing a beat, Marco whispered back, “I think you’re gonna look  _ bee-utiful,  _ Jackie.”

By the time the monster itself showed up in all its poorly constructed, cheezy rubber suit glory, Marco and Jackie’s faces ached and sides stitched from all the laughing they had done throughout the film.

Flicking tears from his eyes, Marco inquired with a wheeze, “I- haha, gosh- I thought we wanted to watch a scary movie tonight, not a...c-comedy!”

Head thrown back against the couch, a palm slapped over her flushed and freckled face, Jackie only barely managed to get out through her own peals of laughter, “D-dude! We...we did, hahaha!”

They tried in vain to calm down and really drink the monster in, with its googly eyes and drooping limbs, but simply could not pull themselves together, and collapsed in a heap against each other, holding onto each other tightly as the waited for their laughing fits to finally die down.

When it seemed the couple had finally caught their breath, and their shrieks had subsided to mere hiccups or quiet giggles, Jackie broke the quiet spell by nearly putting her fist through the screen as she jammed her finger against the monster’s armpit, its jello arms raised high over its head in an attempt to be menacing and screamed,

“Dude!!! I found the zipper!!! The zipper to the suit!!  _ I win!!” _

Baffled,  Marco paused the movie to see the see the zipper with his own eyes. “What? No you didn’t- oh my god, it’s right there. I guess you do win, Jackie Lynn.” He paused, and furrowed his brows together in confusion. “Wait, what do you wi-”

Jackie claimed her prize, a kiss, before he could finish asking.

Marco had never been less of a sore loser in his life.

 

**Trapped**

Marco knew he was in trouble. His right arm had gone completely numb, pins and needles taking small, sharp little steps from the tips of his fingers to where his veins swelled in his wrist, and up into his elbow and all the way up to his shoulder, which had also begun to pinch and cramp. 

He wanted to stretch his legs too, which were beginning to go fuzzy with ticklish, painful static, and causing his feet to shake and twitch in an awkward dance against the floor.

More than the numbness in his arm, though, more than his legs falling asleep, more than all that discomfort combined-

He had to pee  _ soooo bad. _

Taking a deep breath, Marco steeled his nerves, and prepared to finally stand. He couldn’t take it anymore, he had reached his limit-

But then Jackie stirred slightly from where she slept in the crook of his arm with a happy sigh, and buried her face deeper into his chest, the look on her face so soft, so peaceful, and Marco watched her silently, absolutely love-struck. 

He leaned back against the couch, and found his resolve once more.

This wasn’t so bad, after all.

 

** Golden Touch **

“Jackie, please…” Marco tried once more in vain to shove the square white bottle into his girlfriend’s hands, absolutely pleading with her at this point. “Please, please, please...just put a little bit of sunscreen on?”

Jackie simply laughed into her hand, and leaned back once more onto her beach towel, shaking her head in carefree dismissal. “Dude, you need to relax! It’s okay,  _ I’m  _ okay!  See?”

She swept her perfectly tanned arm along the length of her body, which was the same deep golden color, no angry red burns or white split skin to be found anywhere on her person. She and Marco had been at the beach for most of the day now, and despite her insistence they she would not sunburn, never had burned in her life, and would not be starting today, Marco had begun to lose his mind with worry about her lack of sunblock. 

His anxiety none more soothed, Jackie sat up and rubbed his arm affectionately. It was absolutely slathered in the greasy white lotion, which only reminded Jackie how much she hated the stuff. “Hey now, don’t you think I would’ve burned by now if I was going to? Look Marco, see?” She scooted closer to him so that their knees touched, so that he could get an even closer look at her own skin. “The only thing that’s changed is that I’m tan, and have like, a million more freckles now, dude.”

It was true. A wave of new freckles had bloomed like tiny orange flowers across her shoulders and back, and she angled her face so he could see the new sprinkle of them that dusted her nose and cheeks as well. 

Jackie reopened her eyes, hoping to see that Marco’s anxious grimace had given way to a relieved smile, but was only met by his brown eyes shimmering wide with worry still. 

“Jackie, I’m...I’m sorry,” he mumbled, ducking his head away to avoid her shocked stare, embarrassed by his own anxiety,  “I know you know your body more than I do, and I believe you when you say you don’t sunburn. It’s just...I worry a lot, especially about you.” He gingerly placed his hand over her’s and admitted, “I just don’t want you to get sick, or be in pain, is all. I’ll calm down and stop fussing so much over you, okay?” He looked up and finally tried to stitch up a smile for her sake, and Jackie felt her heart nearly flip out of her chest.

“Hey dude, wait-”

She quickly snatched the bottle of sunscreen back up, and offered it to Marco shyly. “I’ll put it on if it means that much to you...If  _ I  _ mean that much to you. But dude, will you…” She nodded her head towards her back, and met his wide-eyed stare and blushing face. “Will you help me put it on…?”

The lifeguard that came to help said Marco must’ve passed out from either heat exhaustion or too much exposure to the sun, but Jackie wasn’t too sure.

 

**Mise En Place**

Jackie had never learned much about cooking. She was content to watch her cup of instant noodles spin round and round in the microwave until the timer beeped down to zero, and she could destroy an entire box of Pop Tarts with or without a toaster- so watching Marco when he cooked for them was almost like watching magic happen right before her very eyes. 

She was always dazzled by the sight of it, the way he sliced and chopped veggies with graceful ease, the knife a rhythmic  _ tap tap tap _ against the cutting board, the way he could command multiple pots and pans atop the stove seamlessly, nothing ever boiling over or burning or being pulled too soon (and when he would flip the ingredients in the pan high into the air- what did he call it, a sawdate, no, a  _ saute-  _ that was so cool!) that Marco had to give her a gentle shake to call her back from her thoughts and tell her that the food was ready.

And the food, oh, that was Jackie’s favorite part- It was always t _ he best! _

She asked him one day, with her mouth full and plate already empty of the delicious tostadas he had whipped up for them for dinner, “How do you do it, Marco Diaz?”

Dabbing at his lip with a napkin, he merely had quirked a brow at her in confusion. “Do...what?”

Jackie gestured excitedly to the plates before them, and then swept her arm out around the kitchen. “Dude! Like, all of it! All the cool stuff with the knife, and all the hot fire, and the  _ shh-shh-shh,”  _ she mimicked the motion he’d use whenever he’d shake and saute with a pan, which earned her a snort of laughter, but undeterred, she babbled on, “And the food, dude!  _ The food!  _ Marco,” she swept his hands up in her own and kissed them each gratefully. “The food is always so totally good, dude.” She asked again, her lips brushing against his knuckles, “How do you  _ do it?” _

Marco, blushing up to his ears, was humble as always as he explained shyly, “Well, Jackie, I think cooking is so easy for me because I’m always really good about my  _ mise en place  _ before I actually start doing anything.”

She pursed her lips at him, trying to decipher his words into something a bit more... understandable. “Meezy what now-”

“ _ Meez-ahn-plahs.  _ Mise en place.” Marco repeated for her patiently, smiling. “It’s a French cooking term that means already having everything ready to go and where it needs to be before you start cooking. You know, having everything measured out and set up and prepared- It just means everything is in its place, where it’s meant to be.”

“Okay, I get that.Yeah, I totally get that. Having everything where it belongs…” Jackie nodded sagely, and then suddenly gripped his hands tighter. “Um, hey Marco?”

He squeezed her hands back. “Yes, Jackie?”

“If you keep cooking me such delicious food all the time, and cuddling me whenever I want, and just keep on being adorable and dorky you…”

“Aww, Jackie...Wait! Dorky-”

She leaned over the table quickly and silenced his protest with a kiss. “I think just being with you is mise en place to me.”

**Feverish**

Jackie never really got sick all that often. She was active, and save for the bags of gummy candy she liked to get at the movies and her undying love for nuggets, she ate pretty well for the most part too. She was all in all, a pretty healthy teenage girl.

Just not this weekend, she wasn’t.

“S-seriously, dude…?” She groaned from beneath her covers, her face flushed and sweaty, eyes running. “Who gets sick on a Saturday like this?” 

She sneezed violently into the crook of her arm, as if her body was cruelly  reminding her-  _ You do Jackie Lynn Thomas. _

She loudly honked her nose into a tissue and turned over in bed so that she could stare miserably at her skateboard leaned up against the wall, its wheels still and unmoving. The sight only bummed her out further, and she ducked under her blankets with a whine. Any day where she couldn’t skate wasn’t just a bad one, but an  _ awful  _ one.

“This sucks…”

There was a timid knock of her door then, and Jackie slowly peeked her head out from under the covers, sniffing deeply. Her dad was probably coming to check up on her, maybe bring her another bottled water or more ibuprofen. “Y-yeah?” She called out, and she was surprised to see not her dad slip into her room, but her boyfriend. “M-marco? Dude?”

“Hey, Jackie.” He smiled warmly at her in greeting, and shut the door shut behind him with his foot, his arms full with some kind of pot he was cradling, a white plastic bag swaying from the crook of his elbow. “I uhhh, brought you some stuff to make you feel better! Or you know, at least, help?”

He blushed sheepishly as he knelt down beside her bed, and quickly let her look through the glass lid of the pot before setting it down on the floor. “I made you some homemade soup,  _ caldo de res.  _ It’s what my dad makes for me and my mom whenever we get sick, it’s really good!” And then he passed the bag over for Jackie to rummage through herself, her eyes wide with awe and gratitude. “I also rented some movies I thought you might like, and brought some extra soft tissues so your nose doesn’t get all raw, and I bought some tea too, which I can go make for you right now if you want me to.”

Touched to the point of nearly being speechless, Jackie regarded all of Marco’s gift with one hand clutching at her heart, the other already tightly holding onto his. “Marco…” she breathed, turning her face so that she could quickly cough before turning back to marvel at the amazing boyfriend she had. “Dude! This is so sweet! Thank you!”

“Oh yeah!” A light of sudden realization went off in his eyes then, and his free hand quickly dove into his hoodie pocket. “I got this for you, too, it seemed like something that’d make you smile.”

It was a pale blue card with a wiggly green eel on it. Sticking from its fanged mouth was a thermometer, and for some reason a crutch was leaned up against its limbless body.

_ ‘Eel better soon!’  _ It said.

Marco watched her reaction to the card bashfully, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Haha, I hope you like it, Jackie… _ oof! _ ”

Finding strength she hadn’t felt all day, Jackie flung herself half out of bed to wrap her arms tightly around Marco’s neck, heart thrumming in her chest, her head suddenly feeling much clearer than it had all day. And before she could stop herself, before she could even think about what she was doing- she cupped his cheek in her hand and kissed him deeply, appreciatively-

Before pulling back with a worried hiss. “Ohhh! Oh man, I’m sorry Marco! I- I got caught up in the moment, dude! You’re just too darn cute, and like, I really appreciate you doing all of this for me! I’m sorry! Thank you! I’m sorry, dude!”

Though visibly a little shaken up (Jackie knew very well how Marco was about germs and hygiene), Marco waved off her flustered apologies with a blithe wave of his hand, not wanting to work her up any further. “Oh! Hahaha, it’s cool! It’s totally fine, Jackie! I never get sick!”

When Jackie went to bring Marco the homework he missed after being sick at home a couple of days later, she also brought him some movies she knew he’d like, some popsicles for his sore throat, and a card of a red-nosed, flushed face vampire that looked just as sick as he did.

_ ‘Feel Biter Soon!’  _ it said.


End file.
